Tanzania blocks access to X amid concerns

Tanzania blocked access to X, the internet watchdog NetBlocks reported on Tuesday.

This came hours after the country’s police force’s account on the social media platform was hacked.

NetBlocks data showed that X was down across Tanzania’s major internet service providers (ISPs) Halotel, Airtel, Liquid Telecom, Habari Node, and Vodacom.

“Live metrics show X (formerly Twitter) has become unreachable on major internet providers in Tanzania; the incident comes as a compromised police account posts claims [sic] the President has died, angering the country’s leadership,” the London-based internet freedom monitor said in a Mastodon update.

The Tanzania Police Force X handle (@tanpol) was compromised early Tuesday and began posting false information such as claims that President Samia Suluhu was dead.

This is believed to have prompted the move to block the social network. The account has over 470,000 followers and even held a live broadcast. Authorities later regained control of the account and said they were pursuing the culprits.

The hack came amid the ongoing uproar against President Suluhu’s administration after several East African activists and lawyers were deported and others arrested after travelling to the country to observe opposition leader Tundu Lissu’s treason trial on Monday.

Kenyan activist and journalist Boniface Mwangi and his Ugandan counterpart Agather Atuhaire were arrested in Dar es Salaam by police and military officers on Monday and their whereabouts remain unknown.

This is despite their Tanzanian lawyers being informed the two were to be deported, according to the rights group Amnesty International.

Their arrest followed the detention and subsequent deportation of PLP Kenya leader and former Justice Minister Martha Karua, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Council member Gloria Kimani, as well as activists Lynn Ngugi, Hanifa Adan, and Hussein Khalid.

They were detained after landing at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam on Sunday and Monday for Lissu’s case hearing.

President Suluhu on Monday said foreign activists would not be allowed to “interfere” in Tanzania’s affairs.

“We have started to observe a trend in which activists from within our region are attempting to intrude and interfere in our affairs,” Hassan said in a televised speech during the launch of the country’s new foreign policy.
Suluhu, whom critics accuse of taking Tanzania back to her authoritarian predecessor John Magufuli’s era, urged security and defence organs “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.”